Energies 2021, 14, 6925. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14216925 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies Article Barriers to and Drivers of Energy Management in Swedish SMEs Noor Jalo 1 , Ida Johansson 1, *, Mariana Andrei 2 , Therese Nehler 2 and Patrik Thollander 1,2 1 Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Gävle, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden; noor.jalo@hig.se (N.J.); patrik.thollander@hig.se (P.T.) 2 Department of Management and Engineering, Division of Energy Systems, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden; mariana.andrei@liu.se (M.A.); therese.nehler@liu.se (T.N.) * Correspondence: ida.johansson@hig.se; Tel.: +46-707-213-970 Abstract: The energy efficiency gap is known as the difference between optimal level of energy ef- ficiency and the actual level of achieved energy efficiency. Energy management has proven to fur- ther close the energy efficiency gap. Energy management may differ depending on whether it con- cerns a large, energy-intensive company or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are of high interest since they form a large share of the economy today. For SMEs, a lighter form of energy management, in the form of energy efficiency network participation, has proven to deliver sound energy efficiency impact, while for larger, energy-intensive firms, a certified energy manage- ment system may be more suitable. However, various barriers inhibit adoption of energy efficiency measures. While there is an array of research on barriers to and driving forces for energy efficiency in general, research on barriers to, and driving forces for, energy management is rare, one exception being a study of energy-intensive pulp and paper mills. This holds even more so for industrial SMEs. This paper aims to identify the barriers to, and drivers for, energy management in manufacturing SMEs. Results of this explorative study show that the top four barriers to energy management are lack of time/other priorities, non-energy-related working tasks are prioritized higher, slim organi- zation, and lack of internal expert competences, i.e., mainly organizational barriers. The top four drivers for energy management are to reduce production waste, participation in energy efficiency networks, cost reduction from lower energy use, and commitment from top management. Further- more, results show that energy management among the studied SMEs seems to not be as mature, even though the companies participated in an energy management capacity building program in the form of energy efficiency networks, which, in turn, shows a still largely untapped potential in the societal aim to reduce the energy efficiency and management gaps. The main contribution of this paper is a first novel attempt to explore barriers to, and drivers for, energy management among SMEs. Keywords: energy management; energy efficiency; barriers; drivers; industry; SMEs 1. Introduction There has been increased attention towards improving the efficiency of production since the industrial revolution that led to using natural resources intensively [1]. Energy is among the inputs for production that have to be improved by energy management [2]. Globally, the industrial sector consumes around one-third of global energy use [3]. Typi- cally, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent 99% of enterprises and use more than 13% of total global energy demand [4]. In Sweden, industrial energy use was about 38% of the total energy use of the country in 2019 [5], and 17% of the industrial energy use is by SMEs [6]. Non-energy intensive SMEs are defined as “companies whose energy costs do not exceed 2% of their turnover,” as investigated by previous studies in this field [7]. In order to promote energy efficiency within these SMEs, it is important to Citation: Jalo, N.; Johansson, I.; Andrei, M.; Nehler, T.; Thollander, P. Barriers to and Drivers of Energy Management in Swedish SMEs. Energies 2021, 14, 6925. https:// doi.org/10.3390/en14216925 Academic Editors: Dimitrios Asteriou and Antonio Sánchez-Bayón Received: 2 September 2021 Accepted: 18 October 2021 Published: 21 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu- tional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Li- censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and con- ditions of the Creative Commons At- tribution (CC BY) license (http://crea- tivecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).